UK on-demand service Virgin Media this week announced a dynamic advertising trial of its on-demand TV platform.

Brands such as Kellogg's, John Lewis and Royal Mail will have their ads broadcast around selected on-demand programs from Virgin Media TV, Channel 4 and Warner TV. The three-month trial, which begins this week, will take place across north London.

For the trial, Virgin Media is relying on SeaChange’s AdPulse On Demand system to insert ads before and after on-demand content in real time, allowing campaigns to be kept up-to-date and specific to time or region. Virgin Media’s trial will match ads to program genres; test a range of ad lengths; including single 30-second pre-rolls, consecutive pre-rolls and end rolls; and update campaigns weekly. The number of ads will be capped and there will be a limit on the volume of programs that will have ads placed around them.

Virgin Media is also working with On Demand Group for content aggregation. Both Rentrak and ODG will measure content performance throughout the trial to better understand the impact of on-demand advertising on viewer behavior.